Union wants investigation into plans to relaunch of Friction Dynamex.

The Government was pressed today to mount an urgent investigation into plans to re-launch a company at the centre of one of the country's longest-running industrial disputes.

The Transport and General Workers Union said it believed the owner of car components firm Friction Dynamex, which went into liquidation earlier this month, was behind an attempt to launch a new company, called Dynamex Friction, run by a manager from the original plant.

Workers from the plant, in Caernarfon, north Wales, were meeting today to hear details of the development.

The firm was involved in a bitter row with the TGWU when 86 workers were sacked two years ago after going on strike in a dispute over pay and conditions.

The workers were sacked after taking eight weeks of lawful industrial action but later won claims of unfair dismissal at an employment tribunal.

They were waiting for compensation when the firm, owned by American businessman Craig Smith, went into voluntary liquidation earlier this month.

Sir Bill Morris, general secretary of the TGWU, said the Department of Trade and Industry should launch an urgent investigation after it emerged that the assets were sold to a company believed to be owned by Mr Smith.

"We believe it is a tactical manoeuvre designed to avoiding making the compensation payments to the 86 unfairly dismissed workers and to put the financial burden on to the taxpayers of this country.

"The Onew' company name is an insult to the workers at Friction Dynamex. This is the unacceptable consequences of Government legislative failure on employment.

"Our members were sacked for taking part in lawful industrial action and are now being cheated out of the compensation owed to them."